the master controls.
one of the most important parts of any workplace, farming or not, is the music the employees can listen to while they work! you’ll notice this when you go into any retail store and some kind of terrible commercial radio is blasting. (unfortunately most workers don’t have control over what they can put on in the background). on all the farms i’ve worked on, music has been an important aspect of a fun work environment. we do a lot of repetitive tasks, such as washing huge bins of carrots and moving things around in the barn, so when we’re near the stereo, more likely than not someone will put on a cassette.
at tournesol all we have are cassettes to play. there’s currently no ability to play cd’s, hook up an mp3 player, or even turn on the radio (antennae’s broken). this limitation seems like a drag at first, but also forces you to play tapes you might otherwise never listen to. luckily, the selection is really good as well, composed of a collection of cassettes amassed over the past 10 years.
my favourite tape. maybe my favourite album.
among the hidden gems is “rumours” by fleetwood mac, only like the best band ever. dan brisebois, one of the farm’s co-managers, and i were listening to it while working in the barn in the other day, and dan turned to me and said, “don’t they just rock?” yes. yes, they do. the other apprentices have already tired of my affection for this cassette. they just don’t understand.
bonus tip: i just read that fleetwood mac is going on tour again starting in september 2014. stevie nicks is 66 years old, and christine mcvie is 70! very impressive. i’m going to try to catch them if i can…
here’s a song off of “rumours” for your listening pleasure. press play and imagine you’re weighing and bunching asparagus for market – that’s pretty much what some of my days are like lately.
that hair.
sophie point out her favourite track
one of the best finds has been the “migrant worker’s mix 2011 (go ontario!).” a mystery at first, the other apprentices and i soon found out that this wonderful, folky mixtape was made by a former apprentice in 2011 (obviously). he and another apprentice came all the way from ontario to work at tournesol farm, so they dubbed themselves migrant workers. connotations aside, this mix is wonderful.
it’s a mixtape and there’s no track listing for it, but here are some of the songs that i know are on it. the hank snow song has apparently been used in a tim horton’s commercial, but since i never watch tv, i had no idea until i went on youtube (go figure):
a truly beautiful gem off the mixtape for you to enjoy:
apparently reid and renée have a tape deck where i could record my own mixtape, so maybe one day i’ll do that. or maybe i’ll finally get around to buying the farm an RCA-mini cord and blast fleetwood mac all day long. we’ll see.